The Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan has agreed to sell its ownership stake in a Brazilian mall operator for about US$450 million.

Rio de Janeiro-based Multiplan announced the proposed deal in a material notice of fact and discussed further aspects on a conference call with analysts and reporters. Multiplan develops, owns and manages retail real estate assets in Brazil.

The proposed agreement calls for Multiplan o repurchase approximately 90 million shares from the pension fund operator. Meanwhile, the Peres family, which founded the company in 1975 and is the company’s majority shareholder, has agreed to buy Teachers’ remaining ownership interest of about 21.2 million shares.

The financial terms for both agreements are the same, the Multiplan notice states. Multiplan decided on the share-repurchase after the Peres family’s company, commonly known by its acronym MPAR, negotiated its agreement with MPAR.

Teachers’ began divesting its Multiplan shares in April through a block trade handled by New York-based Goldman Sachs’ brokerage firm, Bloomberg reported. The pension fund first invested in Multiplan in 2006, the same year that the company went public; since then, the firm’s stock has outperformed Brazil’s Ibovespa index, rising 221% versus a 145% benchmark gain.

Teachers’ sold its shares at a 16% discount based on the stock’s past 30 closings, the company said during a conference call. The Peres family had the option of buying all of Teachers’ approximately 111 million shares but ceded the right to purchase 90 million shares to Multiplan, the company said during the conference call.

Multiplan shareholders will vote on the deal October 21. Toronto-based Teachers’ has yet to comment.

Pictured: Multiplan mall in Rio de Janeiro

Photo: Multiplan